Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Parallelization Strategy”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 595 records · Page 33

Targeted Quantification of Protein Phosphorylation and Its Contributions towards Mathematical Modeling of Signaling Pathways

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are key regulatory mechanisms that can control protein function. Of these, phosphorylation is the most common and widely studied. Because of its importance in regulating cell signaling, precise and accurate measurements of protein phosphorylation across wide dynamic ranges are crucial to understanding how signaling pathways function. Although immunological assays are commonly used to detect phosphoproteins, their lack of sensitivity, specificity, and selectivity often make them unreliable for quantitative measurements of complex biological samples. Recent advances in Mass Spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomics have made it a more useful approach than immunoassays for studying the dynamics of protein phosphorylation. Selected reaction monitoring (SRM)—also known as multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)—and parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) can quantify relative and absolute abundances of protein phosphorylation in multiplexed fashions targeting specific pathways. In addition, the refinement of these tools by enrichment and fractionation strategies has improved measurement of phosphorylation of low-abundance proteins. The quantitative data generated are particularly useful for building and parameterizing mathematical models of complex phospho-signaling pathways. Potentially, these models can provide a framework for linking analytical measurements of clinical samples to better diagnosis and treatment of disease.

mathematical modeling↗

Simulation and dynamic performance of a 20-kHz spacecraft power system

A candidate 20-kHz spacecraft power system which includes a series-parallel combination of four Mapham inverters connected to several types of loads is described. A computer simulation of the power system is used to illustrate its steady-state and dynamic performance on an end-to-end basis. Comparisons with measured data are made. It is shown that significant distortion of the 20-kHz bus voltage can occur due to the switching of the load converters. This distortion can be reduced by including a shunt-connected parallel resonant filter on the 20-kHz side of the load converter. It is also shown that the distortion can be reduced by using a pulse-density-modulated switching strategy.

Wasynczuk, O.↗

Neural network based decomposition in optimal structural synthesis

The present paper describes potential applications of neural networks in the multilevel decomposition based optimal design of structural systems. The generic structural optimization problem of interest, if handled as a single problem, results in a large dimensionality problem. Decomposition strategies allow for this problem to be represented by a set of smaller, decoupled problems, for which solutions may either be obtained with greater ease or may be obtained in parallel. Neural network models derived through supervised training, are used in two distinct modes in this work. The first uses neural networks to make available efficient analysis models for use in repetitive function evaluations as required by the optimization algorithm. In the second mode, neural networks are used to represent the coupling that exists between the decomposed subproblems. The approach is illustrated by application to the multilevel decomposition-based synthesis of representative truss and frame structures.

Hajela, P.↗

New insights into the role of constitutive bacterial rhizobiome and phenolic compounds in two Pinus spp. with contrasting susceptibility to pine pitch canker

Abstract The rhizobiome is being increasingly acknowledged as a key player in plant health and breeding strategies. The pine pitch canker (PPC), caused by the fungus Fusarium circinatum, affects pine species with varying susceptibility degrees. Our aims were to explore the bacterial rhizobiome of a susceptible (Pinus radiata) and a resistant (Pinus pinea) species together with other physiological traits, and to analyze shifts upon F. circinatum inoculation. Pinus seedlings were stem inoculated with F. circinatum spores and needle gas exchange and antioxidant-related parameters were analyzed in non-inoculated and inoculated plants. Rhizobiome structure was evaluated through 16S rRNA gene massive parallel sequencing. Species (non-inoculated plants) harbored distinct rhizobiomes (<40% similarity), where P. pinea displayed a rhizobiome with increased abundance of taxa described in suppressive soils, displaying plant growth promoting (PGP) traits and/or anti-fungal activity. Plants of this species also displayed higher levels of phenolic compounds. F. circinatum induced slight changes in the rhizobiome of both species and a negative impact in photosynthetic-related parameters in P. radiata. We concluded that the rhizobiome of each pine species is distinct and higher abundance of bacterial taxa associated to disease protection was registered for the PPC-resistant species. Furthermore, differences in the rhizobiome are paralleled by a distinct content in phenolic compounds, which are also linked to plants’ resistance against PPC. This study unveils a species-specific rhizobiome and provides insights to exploit the rhizobiome for plant selection in nurseries and for rhizobiome-based plant-growth-promoting strategies, boosting environmentally friendly disease control strategies.

Leitão, Frederico↗

Guided Formation of 3D Helical Mesostructures by Mechanical Buckling: Analytical Modeling and Experimental Validation

3D helical mesostructures are attractive for applications in a broad range of microsystem technologies due to their mechanical and electromagnetic properties as stretchable interconnects, radio frequency antennas, and others. Controlled compressive buckling of 2D serpentine-shaped ribbons provides a strategy to formation of such structures in wide ranging classes of materials (from soft polymers to brittle inorganic semiconductors) and length scales (from nanometer to centimeter), with an ability for automated, parallel assembly over large areas. The underlying relations between the helical configurations and fabrication parameters require a relevant theory as the basis of design for practical applications. In this work, an analytic model of compressive buckling in serpentine microstructures is presented based on the minimization of total strain energy that results from various forms of spatially dependent deformations. Experiments at micro- and millimeter scales, together with finite element analyses, have been exploited to examine the validity of developed model. The theoretical analyses shed light on general scaling laws in terms of three groups of fabrication parameters (related to loading, material, and 2D geometry), including a negligible effect of material parameters and a square root dependence of primary displacements on the compressive strain. Furthermore, analytic solutions were obtained for the key physical quantities (e.g., displacement, curvature and maximum strain). A demonstrative example illustrates how to leverage the analytic solutions in choosing the various design parameters, such that brittle fracture or plastic yield can be avoided in the assembly process.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Control of Polar Orientation and Lattice Strain in Epitaxial BaTiO 3 Films on Silicon

Conventional strain engineering of epitaxial ferroelectric oxide thin films is based on the selection of substrates with a suitable lattice parameter. In this work, we show that the variation of oxygen pressure during pulsed laser deposition is a flexible strain engineering method for epitaxial ferroelectric BaTiO 3 films either on perovskite substrates or on Si(001) wafers. This unconventional growth strategy permits continuous tuning of strain up to high levels (ε > 0.8%) in films greater than one hundred nanometers thick, as well as selecting the polar axis orientation to be either parallel or perpendicular to the substrate surface plane.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Accelerating computational modeling and design of high-entropy alloys

High-entropy alloys, with N elements and compositions {$c_{ν = 1,N}$} in competing crystal structures, have large design spaces for unique chemical and mechanical properties. In this work, to enable computational design, we use a metaheuristic hybrid Cuckoo search (CS) to construct alloy configurational models on the fly that have targeted atomic site and pair probabilities on arbitrary crystal lattices, given by supercell random approximates (SCRAPs) with S sites. Our Hybrid CS permits efficient global solutions for large, discrete combinatorial optimization that scale linearly in a number of parallel processors, and linearly in sites S for SCRAPs. For example, a four-element, 128-site SCRAP is found in seconds—a more than 13,000-fold reduction over current strategies. Our method thus enables computational alloy design that is currently impractical. We qualify the models and showcase application to real alloys with targeted atomic short-range order. Being problem-agnostic, our Hybrid CS offers potential applications in diverse fields.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Preparing sparse solvers for exascale computing

Sparse solvers provide essential functionality for a wide variety of scientific applications. Highly parallel sparse solvers are essential for continuing advances in high-fidelity, multi-physics and multi-scale simulations, especially as we target exascale platforms. This paper describes the challenges, strategies and progress of the US Department of Energy Exascale Computing project towards providing sparse solvers for exascale computing platforms. We address the demands of systems with thousands of high-performance node devices where exposing concurrency, hiding latency and creating alternative algorithms become essential. The efforts described here are works in progress, highlighting current success and upcoming challenges.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

TrioSim: A Lightweight Simulator for Large-Scale DNN Workloads on Multi-GPU Systems

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have become increasingly capable of performing tasks ranging from image recognition to content generation. The training and inference of DNNs heavily rely on GPUs, as GPUs' massively parallel architecture delivers extremely high computing capability. With the growing complexity of DNNs and the size of training datasets, training DNNs with a large number of GPUs is becoming a prevalent strategy. Researchers have been exploring how to design software and hardware systems for GPU farms to achieve the best utilization, efficiency, and DNN accuracy during training or inference. However, when designing and deploying such systems, designers usually rely on testing on physical hardware platforms equipped with many GPUs, incurring high costs that are almost prohibitive for system designers to test different configurations and designs, even for highly resourceful companies. While an alternative solution is to test on GPU simulators, they are often too slow for these l

Li, Ying [William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA] (↗

Mitigating Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Artifacts in PEMWE Reference Electrode Measurements

This study investigates strategies to improve the quality of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements using reference electrodes (RE) in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWE). We demonstrate that adding a low impedance wire in parallel to the RE significantly enhances signal accuracy, especially at high frequencies. Additionally, we identify electrical pad heaters as a source of measurement noise. EIS measurements fulfilling Kramers–Kronig validity criteria were only achieved in their absence. These insights advance the diagnostic capabilities of REs in water electrolyzers and support more reliable, spatially resolved analysis of electrochemical losses within the cell.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Parallel-in-Time Solution of Scalar Nonlinear Conservation Laws

Here, we consider the parallel-in-time solution of scalar nonlinear conservation laws in one spatial dimension. The equations are discretized in space with a conservative finite-volume method using weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) reconstructions, and in time with high-order explicit Runge–Kutta methods. The solution of the global, discretized space-time problem is sought via a nonlinear iteration that uses a novel linearization strategy in cases of nondifferentiable equations. Under certain choices of discretization and algorithmic parameters, the nonlinear iteration coincides with Newton’s method, although, more generally, it is a preconditioned residual correction scheme. At each nonlinear iteration, the linearized problem takes the form of a certain discretization of a linear conservation law over the space-time domain in question. An approximate parallel-in-time solution of the linearized problem is computed with a single multigrid reduction-in-time (MGRIT) iteration; however, any other effective parallel-in-time method could be used in its place. The MGRIT iteration employs a novel coarse-grid operator that is a modified conservative semi-Lagrangian discretization and generalizes those we have developed previously for nonconservative scalar linear hyperbolic problems. Numerical tests are performed for the inviscid Burgers and Buckley–Leverett equations. For many test problems, the solver converges in just a handful of iterations with a convergence rate independent of mesh resolution, including problems with (interacting) shocks and rarefactions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Impact of Blockchain Delay on Grid-Tied Solar Inverter Performance

This paper investigates the impact of the delay resulting from a blockchain, a promising security measure, for a hierarchical control system of inverters connected to the grid. The blockchain communication network is designed at the secondary control layer for resilience against cyberattacks. To represent the latency in the communication channel, a model is developed based on the complexity of the blockchain framework. Taking this model into account, this work evaluates the plant’s performance subject to communication delays, introduced by the blockchain, among the hierarchical control agents. In addition, this article considers an optimal model-based control strategy that performs the system’s internal control loop. The work shows that the blockchain’s delay size influences the convergence of the power supplied by the inverter to the reference at the point of common coupling. In the results section, real-time simulations on OPAL-RT are performed to test the resilience of two parallel inverters with increasing blockchain complexity.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

Efficient distributed continual learning for steering experiments in real-time

Deep learning has emerged as a powerful method for extracting valuable information from large volumes of data. However, when new training data arrives continuously (i.e., is not fully available from the beginning), incremental training suffers from catastrophic forgetting (i.e., new patterns are reinforced at the expense of previously acquired knowledge). Training from scratch each time new training data becomes available would result in extremely long training times and massive data accumulation. Rehearsal-based continual learning has shown promise for addressing the catastrophic forgetting challenge, but research to date has not addressed performance and scalability. To fill this gap, we propose an approach based on a distributed rehearsal buffer that efficiently complements data-parallel training on multiple GPUs to achieve high accuracy, short runtime, and scalability. It leverages a set of buffers (local to each GPU) and uses several asynchronous techniques for updating these local buffers in an embarrassingly parallel fashion, all while handling the communication overheads necessary to augment input minibatches using unbiased, global sampling. We further propose a generalization of rehearsal buffers to support both classification and generative learning tasks, as well as more advanced rehearsal strategies (notably Dark Experience Replay, leveraging knowledge distillation). We illustrate this approach with a real-life HPC streaming application from the domain of ptychographic image reconstruction. Furthermore, we run extensive experiments on up to 128 GPUs of the ThetaGPU supercomputer to compare our approach with baselines representative of training-from-scratch (the upper bound in terms of accuracy) and incremental training (the lower bound). Results show that rehearsal-based continual learning achieves a top-5 validation accuracy close to the upper bound, while simultaneously exhibiting a runtime close to the lower bound.

Asynchronous data management↗

Fully Inkjet‐Printed, 2D Materials‐Based Field‐Effect Transistor for Water Sensing

Abstract Despite significant progress in solution‐processing of 2D materials, it remains challenging to reliably print high‐performance semiconducting channels that can be efficiently modulated in a field‐effect transistor (FET). Herein, electrochemically exfoliated MoS 2 nanosheets are inkjet‐printed into ultrathin semiconducting channels, resulting in high on/off current ratios up to 10 3 . The reported printing strategy is reliable and general for thin film channel fabrication even in the presence of the ubiquitous coffee‐ring effect. Statistical modeling analysis on the printed pattern profiles suggests that a spaced parallel printing approach can overcome the coffee‐ring effect during inkjet printing, resulting in uniform 2D flake percolation networks. The uniformity of the printed features allows the MoS 2 channel to be hundreds of micrometers long, which easily accommodates the typical inkjet printing resolution of tens of micrometers, thereby enabling fully printed FETs. As a proof of concept, FET water sensors are demonstrated using printed MoS 2 as the FET channel, and printed graphene as the electrodes and the sensing area. After functionalization of the sensing area, the printed water sensor shows a selective response to Pb 2+ in water down to 2 ppb. This work paves the way for additive nanomanufacturing of FET‐based sensors and related devices using 2D nanomaterials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Combination of Structural and Empirical Analyses Delineates the Key Contacts Mediating Stability and Affinity Increases in an Optimized Biotherapeutic Single-chain Fv (scFv)

Fully-human single-chain Fv (scFv) proteins are key potential building blocks of bispecific therapeutic antibodies, but they often suffer from manufacturability and clinical development limitations such as instability and aggregation. Here, the causes of these scFv instability problems, in proteins that should be theoretically stable, remains poorly understood. To inform the future development of such molecules, we carried out a comprehensive structural analysis of the highly stabilized anti-CXCL13 scFv E10. E10 was derived from the parental 3B4 using complementarity-determining region (CDR)-restricted mutagenesis and tailored selection and screening strategies, and carries four mutations in V L -CDR3. High-resolution crystal structures of parental 3B4 and optimized E10 scFvs were solved in the presence and absence of human CXCL13. In parallel, a series of scFv mutants was generated to interrogate the individual contribution of each of the four mutations to stability and affinity improvements. In combination, these analyses demonstrated that the optimization of E10 was primarily mediated by removing clashes between both the V L and the V H , and between the V L and CXCL13. Importantly, a single, germline-encoded V L -CDR3 residue mediated the key difference between the stable and unstable forms of the scFv. This work demonstrates that, aside from being the critical mediators of specificity and affinity, CDRs may also be the primary drivers of biotherapeutic developability.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

A Parallel, Fully Coupled, Fully Implicit Solution to Reactive Transport in Porous Media Using the Preconditioned Jacobian-Free Newton-Krylov Method

Modeling large multicomponent reactive transport systems in porous media is particularly challenging when the governing partial differential algebraic equations (PDAEs) are highly nonlinear and tightly coupled due to complex nonlinear reactions and strong solution-media interactions. Here we present a preconditioned Jacobian-Free Newton-Krylov (JFNK) solution approach to solve the governing PDAEs in a fully coupled and fully implicit manner. A well-known advantage of the JFNK method is that it does not require explicitly computing and storing the Jacobian matrix during Newton nonlinear iterations. Our approach further enhances the JFNK method by utilizing physics-based, block preconditioning and a multigrid algorithm for efficient inversion of the preconditioner. This preconditioning strategy accounts for self- and optionally, cross-coupling between primary variables using diagonal and off-diagonal blocks of an approximate Jacobian, respectively. Numerical results are presented demonstrating the efficiency and massive scalability of the solution strategy for reactive transport problems involving strong solution-mineral interactions and fast kinetics. We found that the physics-based, block preconditioner significantly decreases the number of linear iterations, directly reducing computational cost; and the strongly scalable algebraic multigrid algorithm for approximate inversion of the preconditioner leads to excellent parallel scaling performance.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Techniques for Enabling Highly Efficient Message Passing on Many-Core Architectures

Many-core architecture provides a massively parallel environment with dozens of cores and hundreds of hardware threads. Scientific application programmers are increasingly looking at ways to utilize such large numbers of lightweight cores for various programming models. Efficiently executing these models on massively parallel many-core environments is not easy, however and performance may be degraded in various ways. The first author's doctoral research focuses on exploiting the capabilities of many-core architectures on widely used MPI implementations. While application programmers have studied several approaches to achieve better parallelism and resource sharing, many of those approaches still face communication problems that degrade performance. In the thesis, we investigate the characteristics of MPI on such massively threaded architectures and propose two efficient strategies -- a multi-threaded MPI approach and a process-based asynchronous model -- to optimize MPI communication for modern scientific applications.

Si, Min↗